Vegan Butter Cauliflower (2024)

Apr 1, 2018

4.99 from 145 votes

| 236 Comments

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It's finally here, my Vegan Butter Cauliflower recipe! This is my version of butter chicken... but without the butter and without the chicken. This recipe took a lot of testing to make it oh so perfect, and I am so excited to finally share it with you.

Not only was I looking for excellent vegan replacements for both butter and chicken, but after discovering that a lot of traditional butter chicken recipes required an entire cup (!) of butter and additional cups of whipping cream, I cringed, and knew I wanted to make this one a little healthier too.

So I present you my(mostly) guilt-free Vegan Butter Cauliflower. Tah dah!

This recipe happens to be super easy too, in true fuss-free vegan style. Just add raw cashews, tomato paste, and a bunch of spices to a blender, and you've just made your sauce. Then add two tablespoons of vegan butter (I still wanted a bit of that butter taste, but reduced it by a whopping 14 tablespoons), saute up some onion and garlic in a pan, pour in the sauce, add the cauliflower florets, and simmer until tender. Yep, it's that easy peasy!

And oh man does it taste fantastic!! I've been eating this pretty much every day for a week because I'm madly in love. Creamy tomato-y goodness, packed full of spices, just so much deliciousness in a bowl it's difficult to comprehend.

Serve it up with some rice, naan bread, and a little cilantro, and be prepared for comfort food heaven.

To make Vegan Butter Cauliflower: add all of the ingredients to ahigh-powered blenderand blend until smooth and creamy.

If you do not have a high-powered blender, you may want to soften the cashews first by boiling them in water for 10 minutes, draining, and then adding to the blender with all of the remaining ingredients. This will ensure a smooth sauce.

For the butter cauliflower, melt the vegan butter in a large pan or pot. When melted add the onion and garlic and sauté until the onion turns translucent and just begins to brown.

Pour in the prepared sauce and stir in the cauliflower florets. Cover and bring to a simmer. Stir the cauliflower often so the sauce doesn't burn on the bottom of the pan.

Cook until the cauliflower is fork tender, about 10 minutes. Serve over rice with a side of naan and a garnish of cilantro.

4.99 from 145 votes

(click stars to vote)

Vegan Butter Cauliflower

Indian butter chicken has been veganized! I present you Vegan Butter Cauliflower. A fraction of the calories and fat, but tastes even better. Super easy and quick to make, making a perfect weeknight meal.

Prep: 10 minutes mins
Cook: 20 minutes mins
Total: 30 minutes mins

Servings: 4

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Ingredients

For the sauce:

▢ 2 ¾ cups water
▢ ½ cup raw cashews
▢ 1 156ml can tomato paste
▢ 1 tablespoon garam masala
▢ 1 teaspoon chili powder
▢ 1 teaspoon ground cumin
▢ 1 teaspoon salt
▢ ½ teaspoon powdered ginger

For the butter cauliflower:

▢ 2 tablespoons vegan butter
▢ 1 yellow onion,, chopped
▢ 4 cloves garlic,, minced
▢ ½ head cauliflower,, cut into florets (about 6 cups)

For serving:

▢ cooked rice
▢ naan bread
▢ 1 handful cilantro,, roughly chopped

US Customary - Metric

Instructions

For the sauce, add all of the ingredients to a high-powered blender and blend until smooth and creamy. If you do not have a high-powered blender, you may want to soften the cashews first by boiling them in water for 10 minutes, draining, and then adding to the blender with all of the remaining ingredients.This will ensure a smooth sauce.
For the butter cauliflower, melt the vegan butter in a large pan or pot. When melted add the onion and garlic and sauté until the onion turns translucent and just begins to brown. Pour in the prepared sauce, and stir in the cauliflower florets. Cover and bring to a simmer. Stir the cauliflower often so the sauce doesn't burn on the bottom of the pan. Cook until the cauliflower is fork tender, about 10 minutes. Serve over rice with a side of naan and a garnish of cilantro.

Nutrition

Did You Make This Recipe?Tag @itdoesnttastelikechicken on Insta and let the world see just how amazing plant-based creations can be!

Author: Sam Turnbull
Cuisine: Indian
Course: Main Course

Bon appetegan!

Sam.

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Reader Interactions

Comments

Eve says
March 17, 2024 at 2:52 pm

I am 80% vegan, family are not. I used 500ml passata as figured roughly the same as water mixed with tomato puree/paste. Needed extra water just to sauce it up a bit at the end. Worked perfectly. Split sauce 1/4 & 3/4, added chicken and b.squash to theirs, the cauli and squash to mine. Next time will add red pepper too....I know that'll work great! great recipe. will defo make again. butter chicken is one of our faves. Really couldn't tell any difference. Great texture to sauce! Thank you!
Reply
Dee says
January 29, 2024 at 8:49 pm

Holy smokes! Curry in 15 minutes!! This was delish. Break your florets small! It’s better that way. I added some curry powder and extra salt and lime!! Always have lime with my curry!!!
Thanks Amy!! I just love your books!!
Reply
Shell says
August 28, 2023 at 7:36 am
Thank you SO much for this delightfully DELICIOUS meal I like trying different recipes for our vegan daughter (your recipes form a BIG part of my repertoire), not expecting my husband to even try it! Guess who went back for seconds
Thanks again
Reply
See Also
Crispy Sheet Pan Potatoes
- Jess @ IDTLC Support says
  August 31, 2023 at 11:57 am
  That's amazing! We're so happy to hear it!
  Reply
Christine T. says
August 14, 2023 at 5:41 pm

This recipe is some kind of crazy alchemy. There is absolutely no way I expected this to taste as complex as it does given the absolute simplicity of the preparation. This came together so quickly and, in spite of my doubts, had full butter chicken flavour. This is going on regular rotation. The only change I made was adding peas as I wanted to fully optimize the fabulous sauce.
Reply
- Jess @ IDTLC Support says
  August 24, 2023 at 12:05 pm
  Yay! We're thrilled you liked it so much!
  Reply
Kris says
July 27, 2023 at 6:00 pm

WOW! This was way way better than I expected. My husband loved it too. Will definitely be making this again!
Reply
Alexandra Colacito says
July 03, 2023 at 6:28 pm

I have been vegan for 7 years, and since I'm not a cook, I only use recipes for all my meals. I've been collecting my favorite recipes in a 3 ring binder and it is so overflowing it is about to break. So at this point in my vegan journey, I'm trying to pare DOWN my favorite recipes, get rid of the ones that are only good, keep only the ones that are FABULOUS. I need a special section of my binder for recipes that are even better than fabulous, like top 10 of my multiple hundreds of recipes, ones that never disappoint, that always wow, that are easy in addition to being delicious, plus healthy. Long preamble. This is one of those top 10, in a sea of HUNDREDS of recipes I make over and over. That said, has anyone tried freezing leftovers?
Reply
- Jess @ IDTLC Support says
  July 04, 2023 at 4:04 pm
  Wow, we're so happy to hear how much you love this recipe! We haven't tested freezing it but we believe it should work just fine. 🙂
  Reply
Josué says
April 02, 2023 at 6:57 am

Fantassstik
Reply
Saraswati says
February 12, 2023 at 11:45 am

Really love this recipe! Tasty and easy to make. Thank you, Sam!
Reply
curso tecnico de administração says
April 16, 2022 at 10:41 pm
Your information is of great quality, thanks for sharing. 22676268
Reply
Jenny says
March 28, 2022 at 8:18 pm

Love this recipe! So flavorful and tasty!
Reply
- Sam Turnbull says
  April 01, 2022 at 4:33 pm
  Glad you like it Jenny!
  Reply
Diane says
March 12, 2022 at 4:45 pm

This recipe is great and has amazing flavor!And we are not Vegan. One thing I would recommend is partially cooking the cauliflower first, as it did take a long time to cook n the sauce.My 24 year old son said it was the best butter chicken sauce he’s ever had and we love Indian food.Thanks!
Reply
amy says
February 25, 2022 at 4:54 pm
This sounds so good and I really want to try it, but the trouble I keep running into with creamy recipes is the cashews. I know they work so well, but my husband is allergic! such a bummer. Any chance this might work with something like coconut cream? or any other suggestions?
Reply
- Kristal says
  May 28, 2022 at 11:04 pm
  
  You can use equal parts white beans 🙂
  Reply
  - Cathie says
    April 15, 2024 at 9:14 am
    Thank you so much for this question and this answer. My. Husband is allergic to nuts, too. I can’t wait to try it with the white beans. It sounds wonderful!
Lucy says
February 25, 2022 at 12:47 pm
before i go out and buy cashews can i make this using cashew milk and if so how much. i m all out of nuts!
Reply
Elaine says
February 09, 2022 at 7:42 pm

This was phenomenal! So easy and SO delicious - it really tastes like it's way more work than it actually is. I can't wait to try it again (and again, and again...)
Reply
Kim from Balto says
November 20, 2021 at 7:14 pm

This is absolutely delicious!! And sooo easy to make!! I did roast my cauliflower first so it only needed to be blended into the sauce. And I added the chickpeas as suggested by others. Fantastic dish that I will be making again and again! :o))
Reply
- Sam Turnbull says
  November 22, 2021 at 3:56 pm
  So happy you enjoyed it!
  Reply
Sarah says
November 08, 2021 at 2:24 pm

Made this last night - super easy and delicious! Leftovers were even better. It took my cauliflower much longer than 10 minutes to soften. The only change I made was adding some chopped spinach (because I throw spinach in pretty much everything). I did think about adding chickpeas (as another reader suggested), but decided to try it first without them. I might even use the sauce recipe with just chickpeas and spinach for a different option. This recipe will go into the regular rotation!
Reply

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